On 26 March, the last trilogue on the Union Customs Code (UCC) Reform took place between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, overseen by the European Commission. On this occasion, the co-legislators have concluded the negotiations on the Customs reform after three years of negotiations.
The UCC reform aims to modernise the way that Customs, and more broadly the import of goods, work. From a transaction-by-transaction approach, the UCC reform aims to introduce a system-based approach centred around data sharing, partnerships and risk management. Data provided by traders about supply chain events, trader identification, payments, items and more, is submitted to a centralised database called Customs Data Hub, which will be managed by an EU Customs Authority seating in Lille, France as of 2027. The data-centric vision of the Reform will be the enabler of the new EU customs paradigm.
Another key element of the Reform is the new partnership between the private and the public sector, which redefines the roles and responsibilities allocated on importers, from e-commerce marketplaces and online retailers to indirect customs representatives, postal, logistics, terminal operators, and more. Trusted operators, such as AEOs or the brand-new EU-specific Trust & Check Traders, will benefit from simplified procedures and, in some cases, import fee reductions.
The UCC reform will also introduce a European handling fee in November 2026, aiming to curb the importation of non-compliant products. The details of the fee, such as amount and operational roll-out, will be defined by the European Commission in delegated acts. The fee will supposedly replace the current national handling fees introduced by Italy, France and Romania.
At the same time, the UCC reform eliminates the customs threshold of €150 and introduces a temporary €3 customs duty on all item categories from July 2026. The removal of this so-called de minimis was already part of the UCC reform as proposed by the European Commission in May 2023, but was not subject to the co-decision procedure with the European Parliament because tax-specific matters are a competence of Member States only. Consequently, the removal of de minimis was approved by the ECOFIN in December 2025. One major difference compared to the Commission’s proposal is that the removal of the threshold, as agreed by the Council, would not occur in 2028, but on 1 July 2026 until 1 July 2028. In 2028, the temporary measure will be replaced by the traditional tariff classification and ad valorem duties, as originally planned by the Commission.
The change of entry into force of the customs duty threshold’s removal is a strongly important message that the EU wants to convey to the international arena, to its citizens and national politics: the EU is addressing the rising volumes of e-commerce and high percentage of non-compliance in e-commerce imports, and is putting forward a quick solution which can be extraordinarily be implemented in the short-term (instead of the initially proposed 2028). The earlier removal of the customs threshold is also one way to deliver on the expectations set by the February 2025 E-commerce Communication of the European Commission, which stated that immediate responses need to be tabled. The European Commission also committed to assess its level of commitment, and if needed, level it up, within one year from the publication.
In terms of next steps, the legislative package will now undergo formal adoption by the co-legislators, scheduled for May 2026.